Practice Better! An approach to learning Jazz Standards
Pt. 3
We’ve got two ways to play it? Now, after this is mastered, shoot for FOUR ways. Attached again are two more ways to play the same chords.
Because of the nature of the guitar, and how the notes are arranged, we have to be more and more creative with the voicings. Try to find ones you really like, and use them all the time!
This example is probably the easiest, but totally overlooked. Is it because when we see Jazz chords we think “these can’t be first position”? They can.
Now that you have four ways to play the same chords, you should try to practice them methodically. You could for example, practice one set, but each time you hit Cmaj7, you play a different voicing of it. You can do this for all the chords in the chart. A goal of 4 ways to play a standard is a great way to really understand the tune, the voice leading, the chord progressions, and even then you can even start experimenting with substitutions!
